Importance of The Dalai Lama

Tenzin Gyatso, better known as His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, considers himself a simple Buddhist monk. He was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of two while living with his poor farming family in rural Tibet. As a teenager, he was given the enormous responsibility of assuming position as the political leader of the Tibetan people. Due to a tense and sometimes violent political relationship between China and Tibet, the Dalai Lama has lived in exile in Dharamsala, India for more than 50 years. In his position as Dalai Lama, he is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people and the Tibetan branch of Buddhism. He has dedicated his life to promoting a secular and universal approach to cultivating fundamental human values. The Dalai Lama travels extensively in an effort to promote world peace and basic civil rights for all of humankind; these efforts were recognized in 1989 when the Dalai Lama received the Nobel Peace Prize.